System.Runtime.Caching Namespace

The output caching functionality and types in the System.Runtime.Caching namespace are new in .NET Framework version 4. The classes in this namespace provide a way to use caching facilities like those in ASP.NET, but without a dependency on the System.Web assembly.

The caching types that are provided in this namespace offers the following features:

Caching is accessible to all .NET Framework applications, not just ASP.NET.

Caching is extensible.

You can create custom caching providers. For example, instead of using the default in-memory cache engine, you can create custom providers that store cache data in databases, in custom objects, or in the file system.